Antibiotic resistance

Antibiotics are medicines that kill bacteria. Antibiotics can be given as pills, ointments, drops or injections. Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, which makes it harder to treat infections.

Summary

About bacteria

Bacteria are microscopic organisms that are too small to see with the naked eye. We all have lots of bacteria living in our bodies. The human body has both good bacteria (like bacteria that help you digest food and protect you from infection) and bad bacteria (the bacteria that cause diseases).

Bacteria can cause many different infections, like urinary tract infections, pneumonia, blood poisoning, skin infections and diarrhoea. Not all infections will need to be treated with antibiotics, your doctor will prescribe antibiotics only when you need to take them.

About antibiotics

Antibiotics are medicines that kill or stop the growth of bacteria. They are used to treat infections in people, animals and sometimes plants.

Not all antibiotics are active against all types of bacteria. There are more than 15 types of antibiotics. They may be broad spectrum, which means they can kill more than one type of bacteria, or narrow spectrum, meaning they will only kill one type of bacteria.

Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics and some bacteria are now resistant to many different antibiotics.

How antibiotic-resistant bacteria develop

When bacteria are resistant to antibiotics, it makes it harder to treat infections, and if we can’t treat infections, they can kill. Things like surgery could become very dangerous if we can’t use antibiotics to treat infections.

By using antibiotics carefully, bacteria are less likely to become resistant. That way, antibiotics will still be available when we need them now and in the future.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are found in the community and in health care settings. Some of the more common antibiotic-resistant infections include:

Prevention

We can help stop bacteria becoming resistant and help to stop the spread of resistant bacteria by taking the following steps.

Only take antibiotics prescribed for you

Don’t take antibiotics that have been prescribed for someone else. If you need antibiotics, your doctor will prescribe the best one for you.

Take antibiotics as instructed

If you’ve been prescribed antibiotics, it’s very important to take them all as instructed – even if it seems like you’re not sick anymore. Otherwise some bacteria might survive and make you sick again later.

Antibiotics don’t work on viruses

Many common diseases (like colds and flu) are caused by viruses, not bacteria.

Antibiotics don’t work against viruses. So if you have a virus, antibiotics will not help you get better any sooner which is why your doctor will not prescribe them.

Wash your hands regularly

Wash your hands before touching your face, objects or other people. This is especially important if you have a cough, cold or sneezing.

Get immunised

If enough people are immunised against a disease caused by bacteria (like invasive pneumococcal disease) then we can stop that disease spreading. If people are vaccinated, they are much less likely to get the disease and we won’t need to use antibiotics to treat it.

Go to Immunisation to find out what immunisations are available and which are free for children and other people.